On the August 7th, 2017 edition of Monday Night Raw, pro-wrestler Bayley announced that she had suffered a shoulder injury, and that she would not be competing at SummerSlam for the Women's Championship as scheduled. This segment was conducted as an interview set in the middle of the ring before the live-crowd, with Bayley answering questions about the severity of her injury and her psychological state in the wake of this unfortunate event.

As Bayley proceeded to answer questions, genuinely frustrated & saddened by her situation, the crowd grew increasingly restless. Eventually, they started booing. Not allin attendance booed, of course, but enough to dominate the segment. And those who weren't booing were utterly ambivalent - smiling and waving their hands in the background, trying to get noticed on television. It's not as though there was a healthy sprinkling of cheers.

On Tuesday night at 10:50 pm, I was quietly screaming at my television and pumping my fist with restrained desperation. I was "quiet" and "restrained" only because my wife was peacefully sleeping next to me, and I did not want to wake her. While words didn't actually escape my mouth, I could feel myself shouting, internally, "To-za-wa!!!". Akira Tozawa was making his "comeback" in a 205 Live main event match against Ariya Daivari. It was a number one contender's match to determine who would face Neville for the Cruiserweight Championship at SummerSlam. So it mattered.

It seemed to me that all of the conditions were right for enjoying some fun, psychologically sound professional wrestling. I had tuned in after a long day at work, and I was winding down towards sleep, reclined in my bed, Tweeting along with fellow viewers, insulated in a warm bubble of pro-wrestling goodness. All was right with the world from my vantage, and Tozawa and Daivari were telling me a reassuring bedtime story about the power of perseverance.

In this latest episode of The Work of Wrestling podcast, I take on New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax Tournament.

I cover the July 30th round of games, paying particular attention to Kenny Omega, Juice Robinson, and IWGP Champion Okada.

I start off by challenging WWE fans and Indy Wrestling Fans to maintain open minds, to respect all wrestling, and stop needlessly bickering and creating a divisive atmosphere in our community.

I give a broad sense of the opening tag matches, offering some general observations of New Japan for those unfamiliar with the promotion. I then get more specific for the last few singles matches explaining why Kenny Omega is such an innovative performer, why Juice Robinson is such a perfect babyface, and why Okada is basically a god.

There was an audible pop as boot met flesh, and Okada tumbled to the canvas, devastated. The crowd, enraptured by every strike, let out an awe-struck gasp (this knee was particularly vicious). That gasp spread out as a wave within the arena, and then fractured into light clapping and sporadic cries of "Kennnnnyyyyyy!"

My jaw was firmly on the floor. My eyes were stretched wide, straining to confirm what they had just seen.

Was this real? How could that have just happened?

Well...yes, it was real. It was New Japan Pro-Wrestling. And I was in love.

PRO-WRESTLING IS AN ART BUT IT'S BETTER WHEN WRESTLERS DON'T KNOW THAT

Editorial by Tim Kail

Professional wrestling is an art.

That's the simple truth.

Proving and reinforcing that truth with my style of pro-wrestling-arts-criticism has always been the purpose of my writing and my podcast. It is an accurate way of analyzing the medium that quickly dismantles the age-old claim "wrestling is fake", and simultaneously positions pro-wrestling to be watched (and created) with the respect it deserves.

The idea that pro-wrestling is an art is by no means new: philosopher Roland Barthes wrote about wrestling as theater in the 1950s, Bret Hart stated with his trademark tempered pride, "There is an art to wrestling" in the 1998 documentary Wrestling With Shadows, and CM Punk told GQ in 2011, "It's truly, I believe, one of the only art forms that America has actually given to the world, besides jazz and comic books".